Left-lane cruisers are the worst. They’re the bane of any highway, just sitting in the passing lane at pace with the slowest-moving cattle on the road, generally having no clue they’re got a train of traffic behind them. Cops in Michigan aren’t having it anymore.
This spring, Michigan state troopers will be on high-alert for what west Michigan’s local Fox station calls “southpaw drivers”, people who drive slow in the left lane.
Apparently authorities have decided that most drivers simply don’t know they’re not supposed to camp out in the left lane at low speed, as 1st Lieutenant Chris McIntire of the Rockford MSP Post is cited explaining that the department’s initiative is intended to educate drivers who don’t know that the left lane is reserved for the passing motorist.”
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“It can be very frustrating,” State Police Lieutenant Rob Davis told MLive, saying “left-lane drivers can create long lines of vehicles behind them, ‘basically obstructing the traffic.’”
Fox says “motorists stopped for a ‘lane use violation’ will be educated by the trooper on the law and how the motorist’s actions are disrupting traffic flow.”
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Frankly, I would hope any officer who’s pulled somebody over would take that opportunity to educate them on the laws they’ve broken rather than just billing them, but I like the fact that left-lane laggers are being called out. If this post teaches one person not to drive slow on the left side of the road it will have been worth writing.
You don’t have to interpret this as cops encouraging people to speed, by the way. If you want to stay below 55 mph, you’re welcome to stay to the right.
Image via the author, graphic via Joe Ross
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.
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